Jane version 1 was a voice activated personality for my previous apartment that controlled my entertainment system. I could say "Jane, turn on the TV" or "Jane, turn to channel 42", for example, and so it would be. The biggest problem with Jane, however, was that the voice recognition wasn't very good, especially when the TV was on, due to all the noise.

I'm still really interested in the concept of some sort of voice-based interface for the home, however, so I started experimenting with a new use for "Jane". This time around in my new apartment, I made something more akin to an alarm clock. Using an iPhone based interface, I can set the time I want to wake up. When that time comes around, music starts playing on my apartment's surround sound. Once I'm awake enough, I hit a big "I'm Awake" button on my iPhone, at which point the date and time, interesting historical facts, the news, and my schedule for the day are read aloud to me. It used to also read me the weather, however weather.com recently stopped allowing API access for free, so I removed it from the program.